Helix publishing pipeline not excluding Sitecore Assemblies

Question

I'm trying to setup a common publish project using the Helix Publishing Pipeline.
When I publish to my local temp directory, it publishes Sitecore Assemblies and also other files like HtmlAgilitypack.dll, Newtonsoft.dll, System.Web.Helpers.dll etc.

Using Visual Studio 2019.

How can I exclude them?
Should the setting be in Local.pubxml or should it be in the .wpp.targets file?

I tried using the commented code in template - AdditionalFilesToRemoveFromTarget, <SitecoreAssembliesToExclude. None worked.

Here are my files:

Local.pubxml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <WebPublishMethod>FileSystem</WebPublishMethod>
    <LastUsedBuildConfiguration>Debug</LastUsedBuildConfiguration>
    <LastUsedPlatform>Any CPU</LastUsedPlatform>
    <SiteUrlToLaunchAfterPublish />
    <PublishUrl>C:\out\Stratum</PublishUrl>
    <LaunchSiteAfterPublish>False</LaunchSiteAfterPublish>
    <ExcludeApp_Data>False</ExcludeApp_Data>
    <DeleteExistingFiles>False</DeleteExistingFiles>
    
  </PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="EnsurePublishUrl" BeforeTargets="Build">
    <Error Condition="'$(PublishUrl)' == ''" Text="Please configure a publishUrl in $(MSBuildProjectName)/Properties/PublishProfiles/Local.pubxml. You may need to reload your solution to apply the change.
Auto-publish can be disabled in $(MSBuildProjectName).wpp.targets." />
  </Target>  
</Project>

Stratum.Publish.Website.wpp.targets

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">

  <ItemGroup>    
    <SitecoreAssembliesToExclude Include="@(SitecoreAssemblies)" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <PropertyGroup>
    <EnableAutoPublish>false</EnableAutoPublish>

    <AutoPublish Condition="'$(AutoPublish)' == '' and '$(EnableAutoPublish)' == 'true' and '$(Configuration)' == 'Debug' and '$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)' == 'true' and '$(PublishProfile)' != ''">true</AutoPublish>

    <AutoPublishDependsOn Condition="'$(AutoPublish)' == 'true'">
      $(AutoPublishDependsOn);
      WebPublish
    </AutoPublishDependsOn>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <Target Name="AutoPublish" AfterTargets="Build" DependsOnTargets="$(AutoPublishDependsOn)">
  </Target>

</Project>

packages.config

<packages>
  <package id="RichardSzalay.Helix.Publishing.WebRoot" version="1.5.6" targetFramework="net48" />
  <package id="Sitecore.Assemblies.Platform" version="10.3.0" targetFramework="net48" />
</packages>

Answer 1

This worked for me.

MyProject.Publish.wpp.targets:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
   
           
  <ItemGroup>
    <SitecoreAssembliesToExclude Include="@(SitecoreAssemblies)" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <ExcludeFromPackageFiles Include="bin\Sitecore.*.dll;" Exclude="bin\Sitecore.Commerce.Proxy.dll"/>
      
    
    <ExcludeFromPackageFiles Include="bin\*.dll.config;
                             bin\Stratum.Publish.Website.dll;
                             bin\Stratum.Publish.Website.pdb;
                             bin\de;                             
                             bin\Scriban.dll;
                             bin\Spatial4n.Core.dll;
                             bin\Newtonsoft.Json.dll;
                             bin\Newtonsoft.Json.Bson.dll;
                             bin\Microsoft.OData.Client.dll;
                             bin\AjaxMin.dll;
                             bin\Microsoft.Extensions.Caching.StackExchangeRedis.dll;
                             bin\HtmlAgilityPack.dll;
                             bin\Microsoft.Bcl.AsyncInterfaces.dll;
                             bin\Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.Abstractions.dll;
                             bin\Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.dll;
                             bin\Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure.dll;
                             bin\System.Web.Helpers.dll;
                             bin\System.Web.Mvc.dll;
                             bin\System.Web.Razor.dll;
                             bin\System.Web.Webpages.Deployment.dll;
                             bin\System.Web.Webpages.dll;
                             bin\System.Web.Webpages.Razor.dll;
                             " />    
  </ItemGroup>
   
</Project>

Answer 2

You can do a change in your .wpp.targets file by adding this.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <Target Name="ExcludeSitecoreAssemblies" AfterTargets="Compile">
    <ItemGroup>
      <ExcludeFromPackageFiles Include="@(SitecoreAssemblies -> 'bin\%(Filename)%(Extension)')" />
      <ExcludeFromPackageFiles Include="@(SitecoreAssemblies -> 'bin\%(Filename).pdb')" />
      <ExcludeFromPackageFiles Include="@(SitecoreAssemblies -> 'bin\%(Filename).xml')" />
    </ItemGroup>
  </Target>
</Project>

This configuration will make sure to exclude all files that are listed in the the referenced assembly list from deployment

For more details follow this one.

https://community.sitecore.com/community?id=community_blog&sys_id=fcb2236d1b8370d0b8954371b24bcbdb

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

You can also reference a list of assemblies that should be excluded into a CSV file.

<ItemGroup>
  <!-- Requires NuGet reference to Sitecore.Assemblies.Platform or another Assemblies package -->
  <SitecoreAssembliesToExclude Include="@(SitecoreAssemblies)" />

  <!-- Assembly lists -->
  <SitecoreAssemblyListsToExclude Include="Assembly Lists\Sitecore.Platform.Assemblies 9.0.1 rev. 171219.csv" />
  <SitecoreAssemblyListsToExclude Include="Assembly Lists\Sitecore.XConnect.Platform.Assemblies 9.0.1 rev. 171219.csv" />

  <!-- Or individual assemblies -->
  <SitecoreAssembliesToExclude Include="Sitecore.Kernel.dll" />
</ItemGroup>>

You may follow this blog post to see how that CSV file can be generated. https://konabos.com/blog/sxa-platform-assembly-lists